What A Difference Four Decades Can Make...

 I came across an add for a car. Well, parts of a car, in reality. It's true when you buy a car--any car--you're actually buying many parts that when put together, you get a car. The car I found online had car parts...just not enough for the thing to actually work as a car is intended to do.

What a difference time makes.

The fact that the grouping of car parts cost $500 is what really caught my attention. Any frequent readers of this blog know I'm a sucker for old Volkswagens, and that my first (and many cars after...) was a bug. We called it Greenie and it had tons of personality. It also had a working (somewhat...) engine, a functioning transmission and the ability to move under its own power.

Something the car I found online did not have.

No engine, no transmission, and little more than what you see in photo.

My first car and this car cost the same amount of money. Shocking, I know. Back then, $500 could get you a whole car, one that was legal to drive on the road. You could buy a lot of things for $500 back then. For example, $500 would pay for 1/3 of a year of college--unbelievable, I know. My friend took out a loan for his first car. $500 represented five payments.

I think those days are gone forever.

If I were handy, and had an extra VW engine and transmission and other car parts, $500 might be a good price for half a car that's more than five decades old. Then I could haul it to my house, put in under a tarp or in the garage and hopefully one day, set a goal to put it back together. Then I could say the same thing I said back in 1982..."Oh, this car? Yeah, it cost me $500."